CHAPTER 1. Internship at the Career Management Section
of the General Secretariat.
Our internship in MINREX was part of the academic requirements
of IRIC. To complete the training of diplomats, it is required that they do an
internship in MINREX (either internal or central services) during which interns
learn the intricacies of diplomatic life. These intricacies are expected to be
practical, but should culminate in an internship paper. Such a paper summarizes
what the intern learned and what puzzled them. A particular issue of interest
could be studied for better understanding and solutions proposed to the
authorities that be.
Contrary to the first year when cadets of MINREX are expected
to spend just a month for internship, the second and last year's internship is
supposed to last for two months. Therefore, our stay at MINREX covered August
and September 2006. The task of the intern is to assist the diplomats in their
different daily duties. This could include participating in meetings, writing
reports, writing correspondence letters, data gathering, data analysis, notes
taking during meetings, etc.
One of the most interesting and strategic meeting in which we
participated was the bilateral meeting between the Cameroon Government and the
High Commission for Refugees (HCR). The purpose of this meeting was to bring
together representatives from MINREX, which is the de jure interface
between the state and other bodies on the international scene, and other
government departments to review the work done by the HCR on identifying and
establishing computerized cards for refugees in Cameroon. The other government
agencies invited to the meeting were the Directorate General for External
Intelligence Services (DGRE), the Delegate General for National Security
(DGSN), Presidency of the Republic, Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of
Justice and Keeper of the Seal, and Ministry of Territorial Administration and
Decentralization. It is worth noting that the meeting was a follow-up meeting
after several other meetings on the same topic. It was clear during the meeting
that while awaiting the formation of a national commission for the deliverance
of refugee cards, it was necessary to have the HCR establish temporary cards.
In that way, the forth-coming commission will build on the work begun by the
HCR.
This meeting was an opportunity for us the interns to grasp
the notion of refugees, understand their situation in Cameroon, and appreciate
some of the problems they face. We were particularly delighted by the readiness
of the HCR to have the Cameroonian Government follow-up and monitor the entire
process. We had on this occasion the realist stigma of the centrality of states
in international relations. The state might be weak or even failing, but it
remains the arena within which international politics is played. Also we
learned that information collected by the HCR on refugees must be shared with
the Cameroonian Government and vice versa. However, all information collected
must remain classified between the two parties.
a. The missions, structure and functioning of the
General Secretariat
The General Secretariat (GS) is the section in MINREX is in
charge of preparing documents and management of daily affairs. According to the
presidential decree of July 16, 2005 the Secretary General is the principal
collaborator of the minister. This means that the GS is the real administrator
of MINREX, validating files prepared by all sectors of the ministry, and
assigning work to different directorates as necessary. In the decree mentioned
above, inter alia, the GS defines and codifies internal procedures,
approves of action programs of other services and departments, follows-up the
management of careers of diplomatic personnel, making sure that the principle
of personnel rotation is applied, etc.
Article 10 of decree No. 2005/286 outlines the eight services
attached to the GS.
- The division of Cameroonians abroad
- The division of Juridical affairs and Treaties
- The Career Management Unit
- The Follow-up Unit
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